


The Long Fall

by Azhure99



Category: MDZS, Mo Dau Zu Shi, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Dark Lan Zhan Weekend (Módào Zǔshī), Dark lan zhan, Love/Hate, M/M, Murder, inner angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:54:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29496144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azhure99/pseuds/Azhure99
Summary: In a desperate attempt to save Wei Ying after Nightless City Lan Wangji takes the amulet and resentful energy into his own body to repress with his soul, the energy and his soul merge and a dark Lan Wangji is born. But Is love enough to overcome the hate?
Relationships: WangXian - Relationship
Kudos: 21





	The Long Fall

He watched across the crowded courtyard of Nightless City his worst nightmare coming true. Wei Ying, his soulmate, the love of his life, finally collapsed unconscious to the ground. They were going to kill him now, he could see it in their eyes and feel it in the lethal glint of their swords. Lan Wangji's heart clenched so hard the pain was overpowering. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think, and somehow he found himself flying away on Bichen, Wei Ying in his arms, no destination planned, no thinking involved, just pure instinct. He was half dead himself, injuries covered his body from the assault of Wei Ying's undead army. He had no resources, no plan, no power left, and yet none of it mattered. The only things that mattered to him was a small vibration in his right arm from a barely discernible movement from the man in his arms and a warmth against his right cheek where it rested on the man's forehead. Wei Ying was breathing and his heart was still beating.

\---

They didn't make it back to the burial mounds before Wangji felt his spiritual energy run out. He managed to crash land them in a forest on a mountainside, protecting Wei Ying with his own body as they slammed into the ground. Crawling through the dirt on his hands and knees Wangji managed to drag his Wei Ying into the protection of a cave in the lee of the mountain to protect them from the elements. He was too exhausted for fire or food so Wangji simply curled up next to the unconscious Wei Wuxian and joined him in the sweet release of sleep.

What Wangji couldn’t have known is that Wei Wuxian wasn’t asleep, his body was completely overrun and taken control of by the dark powers of the resentful energies. He struggled in his mind against them trying to get back control but they were too strong for his weakened state. He tried to scream, yell, banish them back to hell but no matter how he tried they continued their relentless attack.

Wangji awoke with a start to Wei Wuxian’s scream echoing through the cave. His heart nearly stopped in his chest. “Wei Ying.” Wangji cooed pulling the man’s aggressively twitching body into the circle of his arms. “Wei Ying, I’m here.”

Wei Wuxian couldn’t hear him, all he could hear was the sounds of the whispers and taunts of the spirits crushing against him from all sides. He screamed again to drown them out.

Tears formed in Wangji’s eyes as he heard the pain and desperation of Wei Ying’s scream and inside he broke. They were killing him. The spirits were killing his Wei Ying. His hands clenched around the fabric of Wei Yings clothes as he held him close, finally allowing his tears to fall. He let his forehead rest against his and his tears fell onto Wei Ying’s pained face and he made a rash decision, maybe the bravest of his life. 

“Don’t worry Wei Ying, you’re going to be ok.” he smiled softly. Taking advantage of Wei Ying’s unconscious state he leaned down and placed a kiss on his lips letting it linger as his shaking hand wrapped around the bag Wei Ying kept the amulet in. Using all his spiritual energy and cultivation Wangji deepened the kiss and let the spirits consume him. 

Wei Wuxian had been in a dark place surrounded by evil that was hurting him slowly but consistently when suddenly there was something else to look at. A pure white light filled his vision and he blinked as it cleared out the darkness. He ran towards it, his hand outstretched to thank it but just before his fingers touched it, it disappeared.

Wei Wuxian slowly blinked his eyes open into the darkness of the cave. Every Inch of him hurt and his memory was hazy so he looked around to fill in the gaps. Lan Wangji was lying unconscious by his side and Wei Wuxian turned towards him. “Lan Zhan.” He shook his shoulder softly. “Lan Zhan.” This time he sounded smaller and more desperate.

Worried, Wei Wuxian grabbed his wrist to check his pulse and spiritual energies but as soon as he did he hissed and pulled back staring wide eyed at his friend. “Lan Zhan. Oh Lan Zhan…” He shook his head softly refusing to believe it was possible. _ This must be a dream, a horrible dream.  _ But the longer he sat there staring, tears gently pooling in his eyes, the more clear it became he wasn’t waking up. A trembling hand reached out to gently stroke Lan Zhan’s cheek. “What did you do.”

\---

Wei Wuxian pulled Lan Zhan’s head into his lap and sighed as he leaned against the cave wall. He cried softly against his arm where he had raised it to cover his eyes. “Why Lan Zhan?” he asked the emptiness. “Why would you do that?” His left hand clutched the cloud patterned robes in a tight grip. “It...It was never your burden to bear…My fault...My fault...Why...Why save me?”

He never got an answer but eventually his exhausted body gave out and this time he rested peacefully. 

This time it was Lan Zhan trapped in the darkness, in the endless torment, this time Lan Wangji the second jade of Lan, whose strength was not enough to destroy the amulet, had used his energies to fuse it to his own soul, using himself as a vessel to contain its evil powers.

\----

When Wangji opened his eyes, he wasn’t entirely Wangji anymore. He was held tenderly in the circle of a sleeping Wei Ying’s arms and yet he felt nothing but a deep pressure in his chest. His eyes were red and the spirits inside smiled as they took more and more control. Revenge on the one who enslaved them would be so sweet. 

Wei Wuxian awoke with a start as strong hands wrapped themselves tight around his throat cutting off his access to air. The Wangji/Evil hybrid was bearing down on him red eyes gleaming merrily as it choked the life out of him. He tried desperately to speak, to say anything that would wake Wangji and give him the strength to take back control but the force was too strong. His vision blurred, he only had seconds left, how to rouse Wangji to fight back? He lifted a trembling hand out and grabbed. The headband fell from the thing’s forehead in Wei Wuxian’s limp hand as his strength gave out and he succumbed to the blackness of unconsciousness.

It was enough. It was enough to shock Lan Wangji’s pure-hearted loving soul into action. Somewhere deep in the evil Wangji’s spirit gained power.  _ Had Wei Ying heard his confession? Was he trying to say something? Did he… Love… back?  _ Wangji screamed with all his might as he regained enough control to see what was happening. Wei Ying was dying. His hands were betraying him! He screamed again, this time with enough energy to cause his body to do the same. His hands, he couldn’t control the hands, the dark malicious thing was determined to kill the man he loved with his own hands. 

“WEI YING!” He yelled as he finally regained feeling in his fingers and felt the tightness of his grip, the soft beat of Wei Ying’s pulse slowing beneath his hands. It took all of his strength and consciousness to fight the spirits one finger at a time until he finally released Wei Ying who collapsed on the floor. Wangji trembled, his whole body shaking in terror at what he had done. This wasn’t, he hadn’t, he was supposed to protect Wei Ying. He let out a broken sob. “Wei Ying.”

He let his fingers caress the soft skin of his love’s cheek before backing into the cave. It wasn’t long until he had Bichen in his hand, hoping he was far enough away from Wei Ying that when the evil figured out what he was up to and fought back Wei Ying could be safe, and he drew the sword from its scabbard. In one swift movement he drew the sword back and plunged it into his body aimed directly at his core where the evil amulet was fused to his soul. 

Only he wasn’t the only one with control of that arm and millimeters away from his target his arm stopped on its own. He growled and fought harder, this was the only way to protect Wei Ying, the only way! His hand shook on the hilt as the two entities fought for control. 

_ You can’t protect your Wei Ying if you’re dead. _ They taunted. 

_ I can protect him from you!  _

The spirits hissed. They wanted Wei Wuxian dead for his use of them like toys but they also weren’t ready to cease to exist.  _ We don’t even need to touch him. _ They conceded.  _ Besides, if you’re dead… how will you protect him from the retribution that is coming? _

Wangji was silent but had stopped fighting to push the sword deeper.

_ You know what he did in nightless, even if we spare him… will they? Mmmm see you need to live, we need to live, they’re coming for him. _

It was at this time Wei Wuxian discovered the scene. “Lan Zhan!” 

Wangji dragged his amber eyes up from the sword in his chest to meet Wei Ying’s cool grey ones. 

Lan Zhan looked to be in agony fighting the spirits as Wei Wuxian froze in his tracks. “Lan Zhan. Don’t” To his horror The second jade actually whimpered as his hand shook.

“Wei Ying, please, help me...” 

Wei Wuxian only shook his head side to side. “No. Lan Zhan. Don’t do this.” It was already too much for Wei Wuxian the guilt for the pain Lan Zhan had taken onto himself for him. He couldn’t take the guilt of this life, this precious life, being lost because of him. He rushed over to his side and collapsed on his knees next to him, grabbing the material of his outfit in his hands and begging. 

“I can teach you how to suppress it. Together we can find a way to destroy it. Please.” But Lan Zhan’s eyes did not lift from the hand prints around his neck. “I’m fine Lan Zhan. Please. I’m not worth this, I’m not worth your life. Please. Stop.”

“Wei Ying must kill me to be free.” He choked out, his resolve wavering in front of Wei Ying’s tear stained face.

“YOU’VE DONE ENOUGH!” Wei Wuxian shouted, collapsing into a deep bow on his knees, pressing his forehead to the dirty cave floor. “PLEASE DON’T!”

The broken sound of Wei Ying’s voice cracking as he begged for his life broke Lan Wangji’s heart. He had almost dropped the sword to stop Wei Ying from bowing to him, it was all too much, just too much for him to take. He slowly pulled Bichen’s tip from his chest and lowered the sword, dropping it to the cave ground. 

“Wei Ying is worth everything.” He corrected the man at his feet crouching down next to him and using his fingers to tilt the sobbing man’s face up to look into his eyes. “Everything.”

\---

Wei Ying took Wangji’s hand in his and slowly placed the headband back into his palm. Wangji’s heart sank. He came out of guilt, nothing more. He could see the pleading question radiating from Wei Ying like a cloud.  _ Why.  _ He slowly sank deeper into the darkness of despair as his heart continued to break until finally he willingly ceded control to the evil when he couldn’t take anymore.

Wei Wuxian watched as Lan Zhan’s eyes slowly devolved from amber to red while there was nothing he could do to stop it. 

Finally the Wangji/Evil broke the silence with the answer Wei Wuxian was not expecting. Why kill him when they could tourture him, the spirits realized before answering. “He did it all because he loves you, you idiot.”

\-----

"We can see from your big doe eyes that you didn't see that coming, although how could you not, really? How pathetic can you get? We can see in your eyes you don't believe us… think this is another one of our games to break you? Well that may be true but we don't have to make anything up now to do that do we? Want proof? We attack you and his first instinct is to kill himself to protect you." They laughed.

The sound of Lan Zhan's voice being distorted by that thing, the taunts and especially the sick sardonic laugh made Wei Wuxian feel sick. The facial expressions it made only drove home the fact this thing wasn't Lan Zhan anymore. The thought of that made him turn and vomit.

The thing was laughing at that when there was a sound from the cave entrance. It slowly stopped and smiled. "Ah they got here so quickly." 

It grabbed Wei Wuxian by the collar and with way too much resentment force than was necessary threw him towards the front of the cave. They walked slowly forward to see who had arrived. The Lan clan of Gusu had come for their lost jade.

"Take him" it said about the weakened Wei Wuxian and laughed maniacally, before it doubled over like it had been punched by an invisible hand. 

Wei Wuxian was exhausted, his body had been through more than it could take and his heart had been through more than it could take but he still felt a jolt of energy inside him when the Wangji thing collapsed to its knees. Was Lan Zhan protecting him still? Could what it had said be true? He blinked his eyes slowly then finally passed out.

Wangji likewise had no strength left to take control back from the spirits so in his fear for Wei Ying he made a horrible deal.  _ I won’t fight you anymore. As long as Wei Ying stays safe you can have my body. Just protect him and I won’t fight. _

The spirits felt the pain in their stomach diminish as Wangji surrendered, and they got back to their feet. They debated internally, Wei Wuxian was their enemy who they craved to destroy but not constantly having to fight for control could be quite useful. They had waited a long time for their revenge; they could certainly wait a bit longer. 

_ Deal. _

And thus Wangji became the accomplice, and the perpetrator according to outsiders, of the slaughter of the entirety of the lan clan elders. Though they did leave one alive (only tortured a little) to bring the message back to the world that he and Wei Wuxian were to be left alone. Knowing the cave would start to stink soon with 32 corpses now decorating it’s floor the spirits grabbed Wei Wuxians unconscious body and flew off towards the burial mounds. They liked it there, it was where they were born and the origin of their powers. Taking care of one pathetic human didn’t seem like such a burden, besides, he was quiet like this.


End file.
